Amex Zync Or Gold?

[FicoTron]

I want to app for gold but I will probably only push about $15000 through the card per year. Is it worth the extra $100 to get MR points, or should I just go with the Zync at $25? Keeping in mind that I am borderline for approval with around a 690 score.

[pizzadude]

How much of that spend will be for traveling versus everyday stuff ?

[FicoTron]

$4500 for gas, the rest for everyday expenses...maybe $2000 for travel.

[bichonmom]

The rewards for Green and Gold are better if you do a lot of traveling. Otherwise, you're better off saving the AF and going with Zync. Of course, your first year's AF is waived and there are some really good 25k points offers out there for Gold, so it might be worth it for the first year and then you can always PC to Zync for year 2. (after 13 mos.)

[Anonymous]

Well, currently there is a 25,000 point welcome offer, so assuming you kept those for at least a year, and you spent what you said on those categories, you would have an additinal 13,000 MR points, so at then end of the year, you would have 38,000 MR points to spend. I say go Gold. Plus, The Zync has Membership Rewards EXPRESS, which don't hold the sam value the regular MR points have, I learned this the hard way, sadly. I was trying to book a room at the Hyatt, it it would cost me 25,000 points. I only had 10,000. Do the math, that means I would have to technically spend $25,000 to get a room. Ugh. This makes me want to app for the Gold. haha

[pizzadude]

Yeah I don't think that you could offset the PR Gold AF $175 without doing a lot more traveling. But yeah If you could get a signup bonus plus first year fee waived then you could try for free and always downgrade next year.

[FicoTron]

Right, I was talking about the regular gold card, isn't the pr gold a little harder to be approved for?

[Anonymous]

I was comparing them on Amex's website, it put the PRG on the left, and the Gold on the right, I got mixed up 

[bichonmom]

This page explains the Gold rewards vs. some of their other cards. Also, if you scroll down a bit, you'll see the link to the 25k bonus.

http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/american-express-gold-card-review/

[Anonymous]

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@bichonmom wrote:

The rewards for Green and Gold are better if you do a lot of traveling. Otherwise, you're better off saving the AF and going with Zync. Of course, your first year's AF is waived and there are some really good 25k points offers out there for Gold, so it might be worth it for the first year and then you can always PC to Zync for year 2. (after 13 mos.)

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+1